Google Wave no Longer in Development as a Standalone Project

Last year, Google pulled the curtain off one of their most widespread projects to date: Wave. It was a means to allow users, people, a way to instantly communicate with not just one person, but a multitude of them, in real-time. And that was just the beginning. In classic Google fashion, they continued to add features to their new beta baby, giving it more reason to exist within its market. But, all good things must come to an end, and Google today has announced that they have stopped development of Google Wave as a standalone project.

First, Google still plans to utilize the technology they have built with Google Wave. In essence, they may be abandoning what we know as Wave right now, but they won’t give up on the key components that make it work. Indeed, they plan on utilizing those resources in other Google projects, but obviously they aren’t telling anyone what those may be. Google goes on to say that Wave has taught them a lot, and that they will improve from those lessons.

Wave was a breakthrough because it offered real-time “live” typing, the ability to drag-and-drop files right into a Wave conversation, and watch what changes you made in a particular Wave, all from within your Browser. While Google would have wanted you to use Wave in their Chrome browser specifically, it worked in all of them, and it did so in such a way that many people got addicted to it. However, Google admits that it didn’t take off like they would have liked, and therefore it’s over and done with, at least in its current iteration. We’re looking forward to seeing what they do next with the technology.